Scott Henderson Discussion

[nigel]

Hi Scott!
I was wondering how you handle volume with your amp-pedal setup. As far as I know you don't use a clean sound on your Suhr amp...the tone has a certain amount of gain. With that tone as a base you shape the sound further with your pedals. Some question concerning this:

1. Is your amp tone an "almost" clean tone that only distorts slightly when you hit the strings harder, or is it more of a crunch tone that could be used for e.g. rock rhythm guitar?

2. The RC Boosters' gain and volume are to the max and the pedal is always engaged, right? (correct me if I'm wrong) This in conjunction with your amp is more or less your "clean" tone...you control it with your volume poti on your guitar. With that tone you play most of the chordal stuff in your tunes.

3. The volume of the SD9 is also maximized, right?

MAIN QUESTION (finally):
With all the booster/overdrive pedal on full volume...how loud do you set the volume of your amp?

Greetings,
Thorsten

[Scott Henderson]

If the guitar is all the way up, the amp is on crunch and could be a rock rhythm guitar sound.

The volume on both the RC and SD-9 are all the way up - the gain on the RC is about 1 o'clock and on the SD-9 about 2 o'clock.

My clean tone is using the RC with the guitar turned down to about 5 or 6. There's a big difference in gain when turning up to 9 or 10.

The amp volume depends on the room. The gain is always on 7 - on a medium to big stage, the amp is on 6. On small stages I've turned it down to 4, especially if it's one of those headache rooms with hard surfaces.

Also, I have an SVC volume box in the FX loop of the amp. It's usually set around 3 o'clock, which means the amp volume is actually about a number down. I turn the SVC down for softer moments, and it usually gets turned all the way up by the end of a solo, and on loud sections of the music. It's nice to have a volume control in the loop because the gain and volume can be controlled separately.

[nigel]

Thanx a lot for the detailed information Scott! In the past I always used only amp distortion...but in the last few years I'm experimenting with boosters and overdrives in conjunction with my amp(s). This is a whole new world with lots of great sounds and possibilities...great fun!